On the first day of the New civil Year, the Orthodox Church celebrated The Circumcision of the Lord. On 1 January Saint Basil the Great, Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocchia is celebrated too.
His Beatitude Daniel, Patriarch of the Romanian Orthodox Church celebrated the Divine Liturgy at the Patriarchal Cathedral, together with the two assistant bishops to the patriarch, His Grace Varlaam Ploiesteanul and His Grace Ieronim Sinaitul.
In the sermon delivered after reading the Evangelical Pericope of Luke, the Patriarch of Romania showed the spiritual relation between the three feasts celebrated on 1 January: “These three feasts are spiritually linked one to another seen in the words of the Gospel according to Saint Evangelist Luke, referring both to the Circumcision of Jesus Christ, our Saviour, when 8 days old, and to a special time in the life of child Jesus, namely his staying at the temple when 12 years old, when he was going on a pilgrimage according to the Jewish tradition together with Joseph, His adoptive father and His mother, Saint Virgin Mary. The Gospel according to Saint Evangelist Luke tells us that as Jesus grew up, He also grew in wisdom and grace much more than the other people. This spiritual growth in time, at the same time with the biological growth of the body is the light which related the three feasts: the Circumcision of the Lord, Saint Basil the Great and the New Year. All the three of them refer to the deification in time, to the union of man with God in time, in history, as preparation for the eternal life, so that time is a spiritual stair for coming close to God, for giving Him an answer on behalf of the people as gratitude and understanding His merciful, almighty and devoted love for humans”.
Circumcision, showed His Beatitude, is an anticipation of the Sacrament of the Holy Baptism: “The physical circumcision of the Saviour is a preparation for the spiritual circumcision, namely preparation for the Sacrament of the Baptism. This circumcision meant that a part of the body was removed as a sign of self denying, of giving up selfishness, in favour of the communion with God. This relation is spiritualised in the Sacrament of Baptism, so that the circumcision that accompanies Baptism means denying the sin, passions, sinful thoughts and desires and giving up the spirit of wickedness. This is the spiritual circumcision, represented by the physical circumcision. This is why, Saint Paul the Apostle says that the spiritual circumcision of the Baptism is not made by hand, namely by man, but worked by the Holy Spirit in all the being of the man, as release from sin and union with Christ.
The Gospel according to Luke shows us that Child Jesus grew not only in age, but also in wisdom: “When 12 years old, Child Jesus knew He was not an ordinary child, but God – the Child, Son of the Eternal God, turned into child, but a child who grew not only in age, but also in wisdom and grace in front of God and of the humans. He grew up first of all in wisdom, the spiritual time getting ahead the biological time, and the spiritual growth was much faster than the physical growth. The Gospel also adds: He grew in grace, namely He deified His human nature through the grace of God. Thus, the Gospel shows us that when we speak about time, as the New Year, or passing of years, we must think not only how much we physically grew, but also how much we grew spiritually. The age of the spiritual growth is not always identical with the biological growth. We, all Christians irrespective of our ages, must endeavour to grow in wisdom and grace in front of God and of the humans, to grow in holiness, in our relation of communion with God through prayer, through the wisdom coming from the Holy Scriptures and from the saints’ lives, namely to grow through good deeds too”, the Patriarch of Romania said.
A man who accomplished this growth in wisdom and good deeds, although he lived only 49 years, was Saint Basil the Great, His Beatitude Daniel showed: “Both the East and the West inspired from his way of interpreting the Gospel of the love of Christ not out of episodical and spontaneous mercy, but of systematic and constant mercy, namely institutionalised, through stable settlements designed to help the poor, sick, orphans, distressed or lonely. He built, with the money inherited from his parents’ fortune, a whole district near the town of Caesarea of Cappadocchia; a small town full of old people’s homes, houses for orphans, sick, pilgrims and of schools for the orphan children. Later on, this ensemble of philanthropic and cultural institutions was called Vasiliada and became the model of the entire philanthropic or charitable work of the entire Christianity”.
The beginning of a New Year is a good opportunity to review our deeds, as well as to manifest the gratitude for all those around us: “The New Year is an opportunity to make a new beginning in our life. Whenever we review our past we should think not only of the good deeds we did according to God’s will to brag ourselves, but also of the deeds we did against His will. This interpretation of the New Year as a new beginning, as a stage of spiritual growth, helps us love God more, His Church and help her more, the Christian poor family be helped more, help more those who helped us, and need our help now, and help the helpless”.
On 1 January, the Divine Liturgy of Saint Basil the Great was celebrated in all the places of worship. During the divine service celebrated at the Patriarchal Cathedral, deacon Dumitru Ojog was raised to the dignity of archdeacon for Antim Monastery of Bucharest.
To end with, the faithful could pray to a particle of the relics of Saint Basil the Great.
